My Grandma Jo's cake method...

This is a method for making perfect sponge cakes of any flavour past down through our family, from my wonderful Grandma Jo, who I miss very dearly, may she rest in peace, I hope I make her proud. 

She who always welcomed us with a fresh cake and pot of tea to whenever we turned up at her house. 


Basic ingredients for every flavour of cake:

eggs
self raising flour
margarine or butter
caster sugar

Method:

The secret to this wonderful recipe is "measure to the eggs"

Regardless of how many eggs you decide to use, weigh them, with shells on, at the beginning, write down the measurement and weigh all of the remaining above ingredients to that measurement.

Preheat your over to 160'C

Mix marge/butter and sugar first

Then add the eggs and flour

Mix thoroughly until you have a lovely smooth mixture

This will make a very nice cake, just as it is, but now you have the choice to add whatever flavouring you like. Here are some of my favorites:

• For chocolate, add 4 heaped spoons of coco powder
• For classic victoria sponge add a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• For ginger and raisin add a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger root and a good handful of raisins (this is the option which I went for today as you will see from my photographs)

Mix your chosen flavour into the mixture well. 

I recommend that you use a food processor/ food mixer/ or electric whilst to get the smoothest quickest outcome, though elbow grease will do just as good a job, just might wear you out a little. It is definately fun to do it by hand if your cooking with children though.


Ladle/ spoon your mixture into a pre-prepared cake tin or cake cases.

Place into your hot oven for 15-20 minutes. Test your cake/s when you think they're done by putting a clean knife into the middle. If the knife comes out clean then it's done, if it comes out dirty then it need a little longer.

 

Serve and enjoy!

 

Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cakes (from Cook Yourself Thin)

I've been wanting to try this one for a while. Though the original recipe makes one large cake I'm opting for the cupcake option.... hope it works... they're currently in the oven so I will keep you posted....

Ingredients:

The cakes

• 250g good-quality dark chocolate
• 3 medium free-range eggs
• 250g light muscovado sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, cut in half lengthways and seeds scraped out
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons clear honey
• 40g self-raising flour
• 40g plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 25g cocoa powder
• 50g ground almonds
• 250g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated
• 100ml strong black coffee
• 30ml sunflower oil

Nutritional Information

Per serving:
305 calories

The topping

• 150g good-quality dark chocolate
• 3 tablespoons strong black coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 tablespoons clear honey

Method:

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 160ºC, or a fan-assisted one to 140ºC. With the help of a brush and a tiny bit of sunflower oil, grease the surface of a round 20cm diameter by 8cm high loose-bottomed tin and set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until all dissolved, then set aside to cool.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, the scraped-out vanilla seeds, the maple syrup and the honey for three minutes with an electric hand whisk until pale and quite fluffy.
4. Gently fold in the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa and ground almonds until fully incorporated.
5. Using some kitchen paper, dab the grated beetroot thoroughly to remove some of the excess moisture. Fold in the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil with the help of a spatula until thoroughly mixed together.

I bought precooked beetroot, not realising  till I got home that the recipe said raw. It seemed to work fine though. Precooked beetroot clearly can't be grated but one of the great things about my Kenwood food processor is the mini bowl which you can attach inside the larger one for smaller jobs throughout the recipe. So I chopped the beetroot into a grated-like consistency through using the blade attachment on the small bowl.  

In the above picture, you can see the mixture in my Kenwood food processor, the ready chopped beetroot and the chocolate melting nicely in the bowl ready to be mixed in...


6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. After this time, cover the cake with foil and bake for another 30 minutes.

I used my smallest ladle to ladle the mixture into muffin cases. I then baked for an hour, tested and then baked for a little longer on a lower heat. You need to monitor the cooking as it really does vary from oven to oven and will take less time in individual cases too.

7. Test the cake by inserting a skewer (or knife) into the centre to see if it comes out clean (although this cake is so moist that even when the cake is fully cooked, the skewer comes out looking slightly messy). Leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. To make the fudge topping, melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, then remove from the heat and add the coffee and the vanilla essence.
9. At this stage the chocolate will seize up slightly, but it will relax back once you add the honey and gently mix in.
10. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before icing the cake. Cut the cake through the middle and ice it in the centre and on all sides.
11. Decorate the top with whatever you fancy, but I like using pink flowers, such as tulips or roses, which I plant into the cake with a bit of stem left on. 

  

Tips

1. Leave yourself plenty of time to make this cake because it is quite a lengthy recipe.
2. The cake is best eaten when it is still slightly warm. It is also really important to ice it at the last minute or the icing can lose its shine.
However, it would freeze beautifully providing you put it away before icing. Simply defrost when needed and ice at the last minute.